Meeting Benjamin
by iPreferTrashPanda
Summary: Megamind and Minion find out something very interesting about Bernard, and it all started with one simple request: "Come with me to the hospital."


**_This story is in it's own stand alone universe. It gets unrealistic towards the end, and I apologize for that, I just couldn't find any other way to end it that was satisfactory._**

 ** _I wrote this on the anniversary of my Aunt France's death and am now just posting it today. She died of cancer eleven years ago. May you rest in peace, Auntie._**

* * *

Bernard answered his phone, sitting in his office. "Hello?"

" _Mr. Fitzgerald, this is Doctor Ryan from the children's hospital.. It's about your son, Benjamin.. I'm not sure how to say this, but his condition has worsened._ "

Bernard's stomach got really tight when this was mentioned. "H- how bad?"

" _Unfortunately sir, it's at stage four. We've tried everything, but it just came back stronger._ " Came the monotone voice of the doctor.

"I- I'll be there in a few hours." He said, leaving his office before turning the phone off.

He had made his way to the warehouse district, vaguely remembering Megamind's lair being somewhere around- found it! He walked up to one of the walls. "Hey, Megamind!" He called as he looked up to the observatory.

A speaker moved from it's place by the entrance, revealing it had a small camera for an eye. " _What_!?" The blue man sounded really annoyed.

"I have a request," Bernard said to the camera, albeit awkwardly. He cleared his throat. "Come with me to the hospital."

" _Why would I do that_?" Megamind asked, an almost taunting tone in his voice. " _Afraid of someone with a needle_?"

"No." Bernard said. "I'm coming because I know someone who is a fan of yours." He reached into his pocket and removed his wallet, from there he removed a picture and showed it to camera. "It's my son, Benjamin. He's really sick, and he wants to meet you. I know that it will lift his spirits, and mine as his father." Despite some things Bernard had said publicly about the alien.

On the other side of the camera, Megamind found his heart stopping at the sight of the photo. Bernard was holding a little bald boy close, who had a needle with a thin medicine tube sticking out of it. The boy was smiling, a wide and genuine smile, while Bernard's looked tired, strained.

"Sir," came Minion's soft voice to his left. "We should go see the boy. It could boost your sight as a hero in the eyes of the city and we could meet a true fan." An innocent instead of some other.. disturbed individual. "And besides, Miss Ritchie is still away in Miami visiting relatives."

Megamind groaned, the idea of leaving the clean lair for a germ infested hospital was not the most appealing one, but it was for a fan. "Alright. Fine." He spoke into the speaker.

After an hour of making their way to the hospital, they checked in and went into a room to see a little bald boy sitting in his hospital bed coloring a picture with a smile, that brightens when he looks up and sees his father and two aliens.

They spend a few hours with them, Bernard introducing Ben to Megamind and Minion and vice verse. They two awkwardly let the boy tug on their clothes and tap Minion's bowl. Megamind looked at the bed to see the drawings, ones of Ben and Bernard, some even included Minion and himself as a superhero team. Towards the end of visiting hours, the blue man read the chart on the bed as Ben falls asleep, Bernard reading a story to him in a gentle voice on the edge of tears, seeing that the cancer was in it's final stages.

As they left the hospital, Megamind comes to a realization that maybe Bernard's reasoning for his grumpiness was because he was trying to hold his emotionally drained self together for his son and silently vows to spend time with Ben, his 'number one fan', as long as he can to help ease the burden of the son's pain and the emotional burden of the father.

And he does, sometimes going with Bernard, Minion, other times with both or just himself. Talking with him and drawing with him, reading or telling him stories. He even begins to research ways to be rid of cancer for good, stating up late into the night because research waits for no man. Until one day, he gets a call from a broken Bernard, Megamind could hear how broken he was because of how he breathed.

"Ben.. _passed away_ last night," he says while barely holding back a sob into the phone. "I.. I thought you'd like to know, you both were close.."

Megamind nearly dropped the phone, catching the attention of Roxanne, who on the way to tell him that dinner was ready, before clutching it. "I- I'm so sorry... W- will there be services?" His voice was on the edge of tears as he reached for Roxanne's hand, listening to Bernard over the phone.

* * *

After getting the details for the funeral, he tells Minion and Roxanne, who had met the sweet boy at least twice up to that point. They all mourn with the man, attending the funeral, and saying goodbye.

"I.. I'm thinking about leaving too. I.. I can't do it anymore. It hurts too much." Bernard said to the group as series came to a close that night. And after that, he is never seen or heard from again.

Megamind tried everything, brainbots, missing posters. It was useless. Bernard, much like Ben, was gone.


End file.
